NGA's online exchange facilitates fast acquisition

Jul. 24, 2014 - 06:00AM
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An Air National Guardsman, uses a handheld portable transceiver device to view targeting data during a training exercise. (SSgt Jorge Intriago / U.S. Army)

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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is undertaking an initiative to expand industry partnerships and to make critical capabilities speedier to acquire.

The GEOINT Solutions Marketplace, described in an article at defense.gov as “a newly expanding pilot” program, “operates as an online exchange for government and vendors, commercial partners, academic institutions and the broader geospatial intelligence community.”

The entire information technology world is changing fast, and that includes the geospatial industry, said Karyn Hayes-Ryan, NGA’s deputy component acquisition executive and director of the agency’s Agility Strategic Initiative, as quoted in the defense.gov article. The government’s acquisition process cannot keep up, she said.

“The government puts a [request for proposal] out there, we do an acquisition, we then start development nine months later, and [the product] is delivered nine months after that,” Hayes-Ryan said in the article.

By the time the technology actually gets into the hands of its users, it’s time to change it out all over again, she said. GSM’s goal is to get available technologies to government users much more quickly than conventional procurement can.

The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, a Virginia nonprofit organization, is NGA’s partner in the effort.